Title

Author

Date of Award

Spring 5-11-2014

Department

Environmental Science

Advisor(s)

John Van Buren

Abstract

What moral responsibility do we have to the suffering that we cause to animals? Should we reconsider our socially accepted treatment of animals in agriculture? In this essay I attempt to explore those moral questions by comparing new agriculture to the past; quantitative data linking environmental concerns to animal agriculture; and the current policy and law relating to factory farming. Using this information I try to unpack our moral obligation to these animals in factory farms and our affected ignorance to the entire subject of the unethical treatment of animals in factory farms. I recommend that we need to transform our way of considering our moral obligation to animals and shift the entire system of animal agriculture away from factory farming.